The present invention relates to a new and improved method of, and apparatus for, storing continuously arriving flat products, especially printed products, particularly those arriving in an imbricated formation.
At times throughout this disclosure reference to such method and apparatus will simply generally be made in terms of measures for accomplishing such storage of the printed products. Equally, while the description to follow, as a matter of convenience, refers to the processing of printed products, obviously other types of products can be conveniently handled, and therefore, the use of this term is not to be construed in a limiting sense in any way whatsoever, merely is to be viewed as an exemplary and desirable field of application for the inventive measures.
The present invention relates specifically to a new and improved method of, and apparatus for, the storing of continuously arriving flat products in which a continuous stream of products is conveyed from a source to a storage station, and such storage station includes a wind-up location equipped with a winding core.
It is known to wind-up flat products of the most different kinds, which arrive continuously, on a winding core, such as, for instance, disclosed in German Patent Publication No. 2,544,135, German Pat. No. 1,244,656 and German Pat. No. 2,207,556. In case the number of products to be handled in this way exceeds the capacity of the product package upon the winding core then techniques have to be undertaken to achieve that, if the winding core is filled, the further arriving products can be wound-up upon a new empty winding core during the handling operations. For example, it is possible to interrupt the arrival of the products for that period of time during which the completed product package is exchanged against an empty winding core. Additionally, it is also known from German Patent Publication No. 2,544,135 to provide two alternatively charged winding stations, of which a respective one is supplied with the products, while the completed product package is removed from the respective other winding station.
While with the last-mentioned proposal it is unnecessary to interrupt the stream of products, a considerable machinery expense is however required in view of the required doubling of the winding stations.